Illusions Are Hard To Come By
by NIGHT-LV
Summary: It had been foolish of Gabriel to try and kill Lucifer, and he died because of it. He should just consider himself lucky that Time is on his side.
1. Chapter 1

**AUTHOR: **NIGHT-LV

**TITLE: **Illusions Are Hard to Come By

**RATING: **PG-13 .

**NOTE: **This starts with Episode 5x19: Hammer of the Gods, so if you haven't watched it then this won't make much sense to you. I'm not jumping right into anything, and I believe in taking my time in laying the groundwork for everything, so I'm sorry if I couldn't cram the entire story into one chapter for those of you that are impatient readers! You've got to be in this for the long haul…

Reviews would be appreciated.

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own, or claim to own any of characters on Supernatural.

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_Prologue: Time_

Kali had not been exaggerating. There really were billions upon billions of Gods; all of them concerned with the Judeo-Christian apocalypse that Lucifer seemed so determined to bring about on Earth. The "Convention of the Gods", as many of the Gods had amusingly dubbed it, led to the ultimate decision…take a stand, or watch the world get destroyed. The meeting had been watched by countless of them, all realizing that something needed to be done; that was until Mercury had contacted Lucifer, and everyone looked on in disbelief as some of the oldest Gods of them all were destroyed in seconds.

Baldur, Ganesh, Odin, Loki…all dead. Of course, Loki ended up being far more devious than anyone could have imagined. Despite the sheer trickery behind it all, many of the Gods saw Loki (or rather Gabriel's) sacrifice for humankind. They saw that in the end he had stood by the humans (even defended Kali), and how he had stood up to one of his own kind.

Chronos had watched the proceedings along with others, and had seen the death and devastation that had occurred at the hands of Lucifer. Gabriel had saved Kali and the Winchester's, which had been quite noble of him, but stupid nonetheless and rather pointless. The Archangel had had the potential to help change the course of the events that had seemed all but inevitable, and he had given it all up. It was simply inconceivable to the god that people would not take their time to plan things out ahead of time. He was all about patience and meticulousness, not rashness and spontaneity.

Altering the course of time was easy for the god, but it was figuring what to alter and how much to alter it that was the difficult part, which is why he rarely messed with it. Time was delicate and fragile; changing even small aspect of time was like dealing with a house of cards…if you moved the slightest one out of place, the entire structure could very well come crashing down. It was always about subtlety and letting the intricacies of time organically develop, but the options at this point were limited. A small change would bring back a bit of hope that the Gods seemed to have lost upon the death of some of their own.

Chronos stood in front of the rundown motel in the middle of nowhere. The vessel that Gabriel had used was no longer there, but the scorch marks of where his wings had been sprawled out on the floor were just as visible now as they had been just days before…even the faint smell of burnt feathers still lingered in the air.

The god walked around where the Archangel had fallen. The chance of what he was about to do actually working had gotten slimmer as the days went on and time passed, but the delicate nature of picking the exact moment to change was a slow process. The goal was to just alter the fate of Gabriel and nothing else that had occurred. He could not bring back his fellow Gods, or prevent Mercury from calling Lucifer…such changes would have a devastating impact on the lives of many, and there were too many variables involved to even begin to make it a possibility.

It actually frustrated Chronos that he felt he had no other choice but to manipulate time in any sort of way. It really had been careless of the Archangel to assume he could outwit his brother, Lucifer. He had been impatient and had chosen to try and his brother with no real plan whatsoever, thinking that somehow his bravery would make him indestructible. Having that Archangel blade near Lucifer had not been a good idea, and just like with Kali, Gabriel should have not made his true blade accessible. Yet Chronos did not want to see that one careless mistake ruin any possible chance the Gods had of reigning Lucifer in. He had to do something to salvage this mess.

The God of Time walked to the center of the large banquet hall that had been burned beyond recognition. He stood amongst the debris and watched as it slowly began to repair itself. The walls slowly gaining color, the glass slowly piecing itself back together…. This continued for several seconds until it looked as if he was rewinding a film…with the exception of him standing smack dab in the middle of it.

All he needed to do was make one change...


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I don't own or claim to own anything Supernatural related.

**Note:** I don't think we ever really find out what city Bobby actually lives in, but we know that it's somewhere in South Dakota. So for the sake of this story, I've placed him in Sioux Falls.

Also, I didn't want to waste time writing out the entire Gabriel and Lucifer scene from Hammer of the Gods, so I just went straight to the end of that scene.

I promise the story will pick up...

Reviews are greatly welcome, and are in fact, a motivator to make me write faster.

CHAPTER ONE

An archangel's blade wasn't in itself very powerful; it was in fact, the wielder of said object that determined just how effective the weapon could be. For an angel, any angel, to take hold of the blade, would have made for very devastating results, depending on whom was wielding it. That principle not only applied to archangel's blades, but to any item that an angel chose to put their will in to. So in Lucifer's hands, even a fake archangel's blade could have devastating results, if Lucifer truly believed it to be real. For Chronos however, he had only one real, conceivable option, and that was based on the hope that Lucifer wasn't as powerful as he thought he was. The God of Time had rewound time and had made his change; he only hoped it was the right one.

_Gabriel stood before Lucifer, looking at his older brother with a mix of defiance, pity, fear, and amusement. The archangel's blade firmly in his hand by his side, Gabriel knew that no matter what he said, he would never get through to his brother. Not now, not ever. He had, however, said what he had needed to say, and all he could do now was hope against all hope that maybe, just maybe, he could kill his own brother and end this._

_Slowly inching forward behind Lucifer, Gabriel did his best to get as close to Lucifer as possible. He would only have one shot at this and he knew it had all come down to this "kill or be killed" moment._

_Gabriel lifted his hand and brought the blade down, prepared for the resistance that his blade would meet upon piercing flesh. What he didn't expect was that the resistance would come from the blade piercing his own flesh…_

_Looking up at his brother for the very last time, Gabriel saw the look of anguish that quickly graced Lucifer's face. A fat lot of good that did him, Gabriel thought, before succumbing to the darkness._

Sioux Falls, South Dakota – 4 Days Later

Sam and Dean sat in the Impala in silence, neither one of them knowing exactly what to say at that particular moment. The soft revving of the classic car served a lulling white noise as the faint sounds of "Heat of the Moment" played on in the background.

As the brothers seemed to have all but zoned out, the low, yet obtrusive sound of a cell phone rang through the car. It seemed to startle both boys back to reality.

Dean reached for his phone, as Sam turned off the radio.

"Hey Bobby, we're headed in your direction. Should be there in about an hour…" Dean looked at Sam for affirmation regarding their ETA to Bobby's place, "…hour and a half tops".

"Good…" Bobby hesitated before going on, not sure how much he should be saying over the phone, "just…get here as fast…" he emphasized the word 'fast', "…as you boys can".

Something was definitely off, and Dean's face was a dead giveaway to Sam that there was something going on. They knew that the odds weren't exactly in their favor that everything would turn out well in the end. After all, the apocalypse was "the apocalypse" for a reason, but it seemed that with Cas having gone missing, Gabriel having sacrificed himself, and Crowley now on their side (for now, at least), the brothers never seemed to have time to wrap their heads around anything these days. And they both knew it wasn't going to get any better.

Dean pressed his foot firmly on the accelerator of the Impala, increasing his speed on the deserted two-lane highway. There wasn't another car in sight, and with open fields for as far as the eye could see, there wasn't any real chance of crashing.

"Everything alright Bobby?" the now much louder roar of the Impala's engine almost drowning out Dean's question.

"I'll see you boys when you get here", the gruff-looking hunter dragged out the sentence, having wanted to say a whole heck of a lot more but decided against it.

As they hung up, Dean picked up the Impala's speed even more, hoping to make it to Bobby's place as quickly as possible.

"Dean…what's going on? Bobby alright?" the younger Winchester asked, staring at Dean as if willing him to answer to the question.

"I'm not sure. Something's definitely up," the Impala flew past the Welcome to Sioux Falls, South Dakota sign, "And at this stage in the game, that can't be good for us."

Forty-five minutes later, they arrived at Bobby's place, slightly worse for wear as the anxiety from Bobby's phone call had only served to increase the tension in the car.

The closest thing they had to a home had always been here with the older hunter, but now as they parked the car and walked slowly over to the door, the house was the most intimidating thing before them.

Sam knocked on the door, waiting for a few seconds before knocking again. He knew Bobby would take a while to answer the door since being wheelchair-bound, but he wanted to make sure everything was ok and frankly, Dean and himself didn't have any patience left…their anxiety having eaten it all away.

The door finally opened, and Bobby sat there, shotgun in lap, looking up at Sam and Dean, who had his gun in his hand…just in case.

"Everything ok Bobby?" Dean asked, as Bobby moved his wheelchair aside to allow them in.

"Sorry I was so cryptic on the phone…it was better to be paranoid", Bobby moved out of the hallway and towards the living room as the boys walked behind him.

Dean and Sam stopped dead in their tracks as Bobby moved himself closer into the room. The couch was definitely occupied, and what looked to be at least 5 thick blankets almost completely covered the individual lying on the couch.

It would have been obvious to anyone that the man lying on the couch was deathly ill He was obviously very feverish, his gaunt pale skin almost green, and speckled with beads of sweat that seemed to be permanently fixed to his face. His hair was matted down with sweat from the never-ending fever that seemed to have a vice-like grip on his body.

"You've got to be kidding me…"

It was an exclamation made by both boys simultaneously, as Bobby went to the coffee table by the couch and grabbed a washcloth that he soaked in a large bowl of water. As he replaced the hot cloth on the figure's head with a fresh one, the person stirred, opening his eyes long enough to make out the two stunned brothers standing in from of him.

Grinning seemed to require way more effort than should have been necessary, but he did it nonetheless, despite the grimace that was evident on his face as he turned his head to get a better look.

"So tell me boys…what did you think? Two thumbs up for Casa Erotica 13?"


End file.
